


Conflict of Interest

by Mikotyzini



Series: Dream Theory AU [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Background Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Dream Theory AU, F/F, Prequel, Rivals to Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29739102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikotyzini/pseuds/Mikotyzini
Summary: White Rose prequel toDream Theory!As the Vale Police Department’s head of technology, Ruby relies on her technical know-how to help detectives build cases and put criminals away.  She’s good at what she does - great, even - but some days she feels a little...unchallenged.Weiss, on the other hand, has no issue with her job’s lack of challenge.  As one of Vale’s best defense attorneys, she actually quite enjoys browbeating the prosecution into submission.  Her goal is to be the BEST, and she’ll do just about anything to get there.When Weiss’ ambition leads her into Ruby’s world, crossing the line between allowable and forbidden, both of them are changed in ways they never would have expected.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: Dream Theory AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185770
Comments: 51
Kudos: 199





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to yet another story! I probably should take a longer break sometime...but that time is not now. I can't take a break when I'm so excited to share this story with you - the White Rose prequel to Dream Theory!
> 
> While writing Dream Theory, I couldn't help falling in love with those versions of Weiss and Ruby (if you didn't notice, they stole the scene whenever they were around). I tried to leave them at that, but I really, really wanted to see more of them. More specifically, I wanted to see how the sharp-tongued defense attorney and police department's tech genius ended up together.
> 
> Well, wonder no more! We're about to see exactly how Vale's greatest (and smartest) power couple came to be.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

“And this is…” 

Grabbing another file from a growing list of them, Ruby flicked it onto the screen and sighed at what she found. 

“Another tracking problem. Awesome.”

Shaking her head, she skimmed the case notes and copied the relevant details into a search function. Once done, the computer did the rest - sending inquiries to millions of data feeds around the city before bouncing back with a response. While waiting for those results, she turned towards another screen and double-checked her numbers and exhibits for later today.

Everything had a process by now. Incoming case requests, outgoing information, witness preparation - no matter what the patrol officers and detectives brought her, she was prepared for it. Sometimes, a little _too_ prepared.

Hearing two knocks on the door to her lab, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled while waving one of her favorite people inside.

“Hey Yang!”

“Hey Ruby.” 

With the same easygoing smile Ruby remembered from when they were kids, Yang crossed the room and leaned against the corner of the desk. Her street clothes and loose, blonde ponytail suggested a lowkey day on the job, but Ruby knew better than to believe the mirage. Behind that relaxed demeanor was one of the most competent members of the police force.

“How’s it going in here?” Yang asked while crossing her arms over her chest.

“Oh, you know...” 

Rather than provide a full explanation, Ruby waved at the computer screens covering one wall of her office - ten in total, but she was thinking about adding at least two more soon.

“Hard at work, as usual,” Yang filled in.

“If you’d stop bringing me things to do, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.”

“If people would stop breaking the law, I could stop bringing you things to do,” Yang teased while waving her prosthetic arm over one of Ruby’s many scanners. A small light embedded in the metal near Yang’s thumb blinked as the two devices briefly connected, and several files showed up on Ruby’s computer moments later.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

“Which is why you brought me more work,” Ruby joked before using her gloved hand to grab the files and open them on one of the screens. 

“Be honest though - I’m your favorite detective.”

After pondering that comment long enough to make Yang pout, Ruby smiled and shook her head. One of the best parts about her job, besides helping people, was working with her sister. With Yang being one of the police department’s detectives and Ruby in charge of the technology lab, they collaborated on any of Yang’s cases that involved tech-related questions. Considering how integral technology was in their lives these days, that happened often.

“But you’re only my favorite because everyone else is so demanding,” Ruby teased, earning a chuckle from Yang before focusing her attention on the bits of data on the screen. “What’re you looking for?”

“Anything suggesting our vic wasn’t the angel everyone says she was.” When Ruby’s brow rose, Yang shook her head and sighed. “That’s the only thing I have to go on right now. Either she was up to no good or her very-distraught boyfriend did this.”

“How many times have we seen this before?” Ruby mused while searching through Yang’s data.

“I know...and I know everything points to him, but I just can’t help believing him.” 

Even though Yang looked somewhat distressed that she believed a man accused of killing his girlfriend, Ruby smiled at the screen. 

Everyone teased Yang about being a bleeding heart, but she believed because her intuition told her to believe. By now, Ruby knew better than most that Yang’s intuition was almost always right. So, where other detectives would give up and build a case around locking the jealous boyfriend away, Yang searched every nook and cranny for a way to acquit him.

“So you brought me everything you know about her,” Ruby surmised after speedreading the file. The information in front of her built out the victim’s life in as much detail as Yang could manage, including everything from work reviews to names of best friends in elementary school. 

“Everything I’ve got so far, yeah.”

“Ok, I’ll run it through a few programs and see if anything pops up.” After thinking through the course of action, Ruby nodded and turned back to Yang. “It might take a couple days, but I can do it. No problem.”

“Thank you.” 

Yang looked so grateful, Ruby felt guilty for considering it such a trivial request. To her, it was the same old work she’d done thousands of times before. To Yang, it was a possible lead in an important case - Ruby needed to remember that.

“Anything to help,” she replied with a smile this time. “Maybe this angel is _actually_ an angel.”

“That’s the hope.” 

While Yang chuckled at the thought, Ruby pushed the case documents into a new file to be analyzed later. Digging through people’s lives got mundane after a while, but the department only employed a few people capable of creating the search functions to do the job. As one of those ‘few people,’ most of the requests came to her.

“What’s wrong?” 

Blinking away from that thought, Ruby gave Yang a curious look.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what’s wrong?” Yang repeated before tapping Ruby’s shoulder - a kind, patient gesture she’d used since they were kids. “I know when something’s up with you, and something’s up with you.”

By now, Ruby knew lying to Yang was pointless - she was a detective; she could spot a lie a mile away. The problem was that Ruby didn’t know what was wrong. Why did she feel so restless or unsatisfied lately? Work was the same, life was the same. Nothing had changed. 

Maybe that was the problem?

“I’m not sure,” she answered honestly. “Sometimes, I just feel...I don’t know. Bored or something.”

“I literally just asked you to track down every bit of info on a girl who, for all we know, was a drug kingpin. How is that boring?”

“It’s the same old stuff,” Ruby explained with a wave at her computers. “Search for this, debug that, fix this - it doesn’t feel like a challenge anymore. The only challenge is finding enough time to do it all.”

Was her problem overconfidence? Because she _knew_ she could accomplish whatever she set her mind to if only she had infinite time. Where was the challenge? Where was something that stumped her and forced her to learn?

“Don’t you have a case today?” 

Knowing where Yang was going with that, Ruby sighed and said, “Yeah...” 

“And didn’t you _invent_ something for it?” 

“But that wasn’t hard!” she argued before Yang made her point. “Just because something’s never been done doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It just means that...no one’s had time to figure it out.”

When Yang smiled and shook her head, Ruby puffed out her cheeks rather than argue any further. Her dad and Yang raised her to believe that anything was possible, so she believed anything was possible. _If_ given enough time, she _could_ do whatever was asked of her. But what should she set her mind to? Work had been the answer for so long that she didn’t know what excited her outside of that.

“You and Blake are geniuses,” Yang replied with a shake of her head. “How are the two most important people in my life so smart?”

“Blake’s the genius.” When Yang just chuckled, Ruby nodded. “She is! I don’t know how she does half the stuff she does.”

“You’re _both_ incredibly smart, gifted people. I’m lucky to have you in my life.” 

From the look in Yang’s eyes and the way she ducked down to meet Ruby’s gaze, Ruby knew she just lost that argument. She _always_ lost when Yang pulled the sentimental card.

“We’re lucky to have you in our lives too…” she grumbled, much to Yang’s delight.

“That’s what I like to hear. But if you’re really bored, do I need to find something more challenging for you?”

“I dunno...I guess I’m just a little restless and...questioning things.” 

At the moment, Ruby couldn’t describe how she felt any better than that. Thankfully, she didn’t have to, as Yang set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile.

“You do _great_ work here,” Yang said, her eyes willing Ruby to believe her. “I’m so proud of you, Dad’s proud of you, and Mom would be too. But if you need a break, even just a few days, maybe that’d be good. Help clear your head and find some...perspective.”

“Maybe...” 

Perspective was something Ruby alternatively thought she did and didn’t have. Through her near-constant connection to the internet, she had a good grasp of what was going on around her. But her life? Her life felt the same from one day to the next, with the only deviations being the functions typed into her computer or the names and faces taking up her screens.

“Maybe,” she repeated with a little more certainty. 

Maybe this was just a phase. Maybe it was a momentary bout of boredom. Maybe work would get busy and she would forget all about it.

“Let me know if I can help, ok?”

As usual, Yang offered to help. And, as usual, Ruby felt better just hearing the words. That restless feeling might not have magically disappeared, but she knew that she had her sister’s support through anything. If she ever figured out how to deal with this...whatever this was...she could talk to Yang about it.

“I will,” she promised. “But I should probably get ready for that case...” 

Understanding the unspoken words, Yang nodded and pulled Ruby into a warm, reassuring hug. “You’re a rockstar,” she whispered before squeezing Ruby’s shoulders and backing towards the door. 

“Don’t forget it!” she added before waving and heading to her own office near the front of the station. 

After Yang disappeared around the corner, Ruby sighed and let her shoulders slouch. She didn’t let herself dwell on the feeling for long though. Instead, she turned back to her computer and formulated a plan to organize the information Yang left her.

Normally, she started with the victim’s last-known appearance and worked backward from there. Once she had a couple years of data, she built a web of relationships and set up searches for every connection, seemingly-important or otherwise. 

Realistically, the victim could have been nothing more than a typical twenty-something about to finish college and move on to her career. But if Yang suspected this case didn’t have a typical answer, Ruby needed a nontypical approach. The easiest way to do that was by assuming the victim was a criminal mastermind covering all of her tracks; now, Ruby’s job was to uncover them.

If she stayed late tonight, she could hopefully get Yang answers sooner rather than later. Before that though, she had to go over the results from a previous search and, most importantly, prepare for her upcoming testimony.

She was actually excited for this testimony, mostly because she created a program to confirm some important evidence. Now she could discuss her findings in front of a judge, remote jurors, and the defense. Even though her work was only a small part of a much larger case, her answers could go a long way in putting a criminal behind bars.

Pulling up a copy of what she sent the prosecutor last week, she browsed the numbers one last time before locking her computer. After spending so long working on this particular case, she had most of the data memorized by now, which should go a long way in making her look credible on the stand.

She still remembered how nervous she’d been for the first case she presented in front of a judge. Fortunately, Yang had spent the better part of three weekends coaching her on what to expect, and she filled the rest of her free time watching replays of other trials. That first testimony resulted in a successful conviction - an incredible feeling that proved this was what she wanted to do with her life. 

Today, unfortunately, she intimately understood the phrase ‘you win some, you lose some.’ Not every trial went according to plan, and not every case could be won. Over time, she’d accepted the failures as learning opportunities, and testimonies as a routine part of her job. As such, she felt very few nerves while leaving her office and heading to the courthouse.

The downtown police department was just one part of the Justice Center - a sprawling collection of buildings that included the police station, detention center, and courthouse. To reach the detention center or courthouse, one had to pass through the station. 

Whenever visitors questioned the layout, Yang explained that officers acted as both servants to the public and gatekeepers of Vale’s justice system. As such, didn’t it make sense for the police station to be the first building someone entered and the last they left?

A more logical explanation probably existed, but Ruby liked the thought of serving the public and the law at the same time. Plus, the proximity of the courthouse and detention center kept their processes running smoothly and allowed expert witnesses, like herself, to participate more regularly in cases. If she had to leave the station and catch a ride across town whenever she appeared in court, she’d never have time to finish her cases.

The shift between the police department and the courthouse still felt too sudden to her, but that was what happened when one building was built decades after the first. The detention center was even newer, which was nice for patrol officers marching entry-level criminals back and forth. It must be a hassle to stop at the security checkpoints every single time though...

“Hey Ruby,” one of the security guards greeted her as she reached one such checkpoint. “Got another case?”

“They never end,” she said while waving her bracelet over the scanner, transferring her police credentials to the screen in front of him. Once her information cleared the protocols she’d personally written, he waved her through the body scanner and nodded when it didn’t make a sound. It never made a sound, so she didn’t know why she always expected it to go off.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks!” 

After sending him a quick wave, she crossed the courthouse atrium just beyond the checkpoint. Attorneys, family members, and friends filled the cavernous room, but the atmosphere remained hushed, as if no one wanted their conversation overheard.

Every inch of the room was monitored, so everything they said was recorded anyway. The hidden microphones picked up the softest of voices, so these whisperers were only hiding their words from each other, not the police. Most people knew not to divulge confidential information within the walls of the Justice Center, but Ruby was still surprised by some of the conversations she discovered.

Making it to the right courtroom and finding the trial already underway, she slipped into the small seating area reserved for witnesses and scanned the room to get her bearings. The judge sat up front, as usual. The cameras were on and broadcasting to the jurors. The lead prosecutor, an experienced attorney named Noah, stood near a desk on the left side of the room. The defendant and his attorney sat at the desk on the right while waiting for the next part of the case to begin.

The reason why Ruby had prepared so much for this particular case sat at that desk - the defense attorney, Weiss Schnee. 

Known by a variety of names around the department, none of them very nice, Weiss was every officer’s worst nightmare. With her striking, ice-blue eyes and long, pristinely-white hair, which she sometimes pulled into a tight ponytail and sometimes pleated in a perfect braid, she was equal parts beautiful and unforgettable.

But beauty alone didn’t explain how she built a career of making the police look incompetent. Her razor-sharp intellect set her in a class of her own, putting most of Vale’s defense attorneys and the department’s prosecutors to shame.

If you were arrested, you wanted her representing you - if you could afford it. If you were doing the arresting, she was the last person you wanted to see listed as the defense attorney. 

Noah needed to be on his A-game today. Otherwise, Weiss would tear this case apart.

Since Ruby was only brought in to talk tech, she had no idea how it was going so far. For all she knew, they were already losing. In that case, it was up to her to bring the odds in their favor. Alternatively, maybe the department was already winning, and her testimony was more of a formality. 

Considering Weiss’ presence, Ruby doubted the police were winning, so she had to be as convincing as possible. Thankfully, she loved talking about technology with anyone willing to listen.

“Councilor,” the judge said after several minutes of recordkeeping. “Please call your next witness.”

When Judge Brown waved to the side, Noah turned around and caught Ruby’s attention.

“Your Honor, I’d like to call Ruby Rose, chief of technology for the Vale Police Department.”

With her turn on the stand having arrived, she stood and walked to the front of the room. Everyone’s gazes followed her to the witness stand, but she didn’t look their way. Instead, she saved a small smile for Judge Brown before making herself as comfortable as possible in the uncomfortable wooden chair designated for her. 

From there, she looked straight at Weiss and the defendant - a well-heeled man wearing an expensive suit and polished shoes. Considering she knew his life inside and out by now, he wasn’t her primary concern. No, her concern right now was Weiss. Mainly, what would Weiss say or do to discredit everything she was about to say?

“Ruby, please state your qualifications,” Noah asked while motioning towards the camera broadcasting to the jurors. 

This was the first part of every testimony, but she still hadn’t gotten used to bragging about herself. The jurors, however, needed to believe she was credible.

“I’ve been the lead technology analyst of Vale PD for the past three and a half years,” she replied, same as always. “I graduated from Vale University’s Technology Innovation Program. I’m CIMA, FLO, and PIR certified, which...basically means I can talk to any computer.”

While Noah nodded at Ruby’s spiel, Weiss regarded her with an unflinching, unintimidated gaze. But she could probably claim to be an all-powerful deity and Weiss would _still_ imply that she didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Miss Rose,” Noah addressed her in the business-like tone he always used. “You searched public databases for evidence of Mr. Donahue’s actions on the night of November first - can you explain what you found?”

“Yes.” Leaning forward, Ruby kept her eyes on Noah and prepared her explanation. “Because he used Jace Face -”

“Objection,” Weiss interrupted. “Conjecture.”

When Judge Brown nodded, Ruby shook her head and started over. 

“Because we _think_ he used Jace Face,” she corrected. “A general search was inconclusive - there were over three thousand hits in a four-block radius. Fortunately, not many people can afford his shoes.”

“By that you mean…?”

“His shoes are expensive,” she stated matter-of-factly before pulling up one of the visuals she’d created. “Per the manufacturer, only three hundred pairs of his particular size and style have been made, and only two hundred and sixty-four of those were sold.”

“So very few people in Vale own those shoes.” 

“Exactly.” 

Getting into the best part of her explanation, Ruby started to get excited. 

“Searching holomasks didn’t work, but I found a shoe print.” With a wave of her hand, an image of the shoe print projected on the screen beside her. “This was left on a small patch of dirt within three feet of where the crime occurred.” 

A map displayed next, showing exactly where the print was found.

“Does that shoe print belong to him?” Noah asked.

“In my opinion, yes, absolutely.” Moving to the next screen, which showed her results, she took a deep breath and explained. “He surrendered his shoes at intake, and we scanned them. I uploaded that scan and created a program mimicking the prints someone his size and weight would make with that particular shoe. It was a perfect match.”

Her last exhibit was the shoe print generated by her new program compared to the shoe print left behind by the culprit. Every piece of data matched perfectly.

“So that’s his shoe print located at the scene of the crime,” Noah prodded her.

“Yes. And since it had rained the night before, it couldn’t be more than a day old.”

“Interesting,” Noah replied while turning towards the jurors. “So you found his shoe print, from the day of the crime, _near_ the scene of the crime, when he claims to have never set foot in that area. To me, it sounds like he had motive, _and_ he was there when everything happened.”

The words weren’t meant for her, but she nodded anyway.

“Thank you, Ruby,” he added before walking back to his desk and sitting down. “No further questions.”

“Councilor Schnee,” the judge said a few seconds later. “Your witness.”

When Weiss stood up, Ruby took a deep breath and straightened her posture. The easy part was over - now she had to defend everything she just said.

“Just to make sure we’re clear,” Weiss began, her icy-blue eyes never leaving Ruby’s. “You _didn’t_ positively match a holomask with my client.”

“No, but -”

“What you _did_ match was a shoe that could’ve been worn by any of two hundred and sixty-three other people?”

“I matched the shoe print to _him_ ,” Ruby corrected. If she didn’t hold her ground, Weiss would steamroll her in a heartbeat. “That’s what my new program does. It measures the wear patterns on the bottom of a shoe then incorporates personal details such as weight, height, and gait. It doesn’t just match prints - it matches the depth, density, and impression pattern of that _specific_ print and the person who made it.”

“When you say this is a ‘new’ program...just how new is it? Did you create it specifically for this case?”

The way Weiss posed the question made that sound like a _bad_ thing, but Ruby couldn’t exactly refute the answer.

“I did.”

“So you invented a _brand new_ program...and we’re just supposed to trust that it’s accurate?” 

“It might be ‘new’ as in not available to the general public, but that doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate.” Turning back to the screen, Ruby motioned to the test results she showed before. “I ran a million samples using thousands of different shoes and test subjects - it created a perfect match one hundred percent of the time.”

“A million samples…” Weiss mused. “Tell me - how many tests did a program like Match Hunter do before it was widely accepted by the market?”

“They only did three hundred thousand,” Ruby answered, recalling the number from a technology summary she’d read. “That’s the baseline for DTA approval as long as you have no failures. If you have under ten, you still only need to do six hundred thousand. I did a million.”

Weiss briefly paused while working through that information and, for a split second, Ruby’s heart froze in anticipation of a swift-yet-brutal rebuttal. Instead, Weiss spun on her heel and returned to her desk with a curt, “That’ll be all.”

“Thank you, Miss Rose,” Judge Brown directed Ruby’s way before nodding that she could leave. Testimony complete, she gladly hurried out of the courtroom and made her way back to the police station. 

She felt _alive_ right now, as anyone should after surviving Weiss’ onslaught of questions. And, surprisingly, that went better than expected. Hopefully, the jurors agreed that a million successful tests were more than enough evidence that her new methodology worked. 

As for Weiss, it was obvious that she’d smelled blood in the water as soon as she heard the word ‘new.’ Fortunately, Ruby had learned from past mistakes - and past beratings from the sharp-tongued attorney - and recalibrated her work. These days, she didn’t tackle any case with the intention of only convincing the jury - she had to convince Weiss to back down too. 

Easier said than done. Today, however, she’d succeeded, and that felt pretty damn great.

“How’d it go?” the guard at the security checkpoint asked while she repeated the process from earlier, this time to re-enter the police station.

“Went awesome!” 

With a big smile and wave, she walked through familiar halls with wings on her feet. Even though she wasn’t excited about her other cases at the moment, she would ride this wave of triumph for as long as possible. When Yang walked into the hall in front of her, her smile only grew.

“Hey Yang!” she called out to get her sister’s attention. After just one look, Yang laughed and fell into step by her side. 

“Wow, you look chipper.” 

“Because I just schooled Weiss Schnee.” When Yang’s brow shot up, Ruby nodded. “She thought I didn’t do enough testing, but I did _three times_ the required amount.”

“Why’d you do three times the required amount?”

“Because I knew she’d fry me if I didn’t.” 

While Ruby grinned at the successful strategy, which Weiss had apparently never seen coming, Yang chuckled and shook her head.

“So she makes you better at your job? Never thought there’d be anything good about her.” 

After patting Ruby’s shoulder, Yang motioned that she was heading out of the station before walking that way. Ruby, however, thought about that statement long after Yang left.

That was true, wasn’t it? Everyone knew Weiss was a great attorney, so _they_ had to be better; otherwise, their work was ripped to shreds in front of the jurors. No one knew what made her so good - although Ruby overheard some crass speculation around the department - but she had an uncanny ability to find and exploit weaknesses. Even the most ironclad arguments weren’t safe, as she’d dismantled more than a few ‘open-and-shut’ cases before.

Responding to her questions without jeopardizing the prosecutor’s strategy was almost impossible. Listening to her unravel an argument was horrifying and mesmerizing at the same time. And being strung along a line of questioning with no idea what trap it led to would stir apprehension in even the more sure-minded people.

It was a challenge, but that only made finding ways to succeed feel like a greater victory.

After thinking about that for another moment, Ruby smiled and headed back to her office. The items on her to-do list weren’t nearly as exciting, but she felt rejuvenated enough to get through everything.

Maybe there _was_ one good thing about Weiss Schnee, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

“Congratulations,” Weiss told the man standing beside her, who smiled and held out his arms so the bailiff could undo the holocuffs around his wrists.

“You’re worth your weight in gold.” With his hands freed, he straightened his collar and looked across the courtroom, where the lead prosecutor gathered his belongings. “This might be the only time I ever say this, but I look forward to paying your fee.”

“I’ll make sure you receive it shortly then.” 

When Weiss nodded politely - their business officially over - he returned the gesture before walking out of the courtroom under his own volition. Now that the charges against him had been dropped, he was free to do whatever he wished. 

Most likely, he would fall right back into the life of excess and reckless behavior that landed him here. Then he would try to re-hire her only to find himself out of luck - she didn’t deal in repeat customers unless they had far more clout and money.

“Pack up,” she instructed her paralegals before checking her email. 

With that case out of the way, she had an empty slot to fill with a new one. _Which_ one was the important question, as she already had requests from several prospective clients who’d found themselves on the wrong side of the law. 

“Interesting…” she muttered while reading through some of her options. As soon as the case files were packed up, however, she put her phone away and strode out of the courtroom with the paralegals in tow. She didn’t leave, however, without first passing the floundering prosecutor a smug smile.

Honestly, she had no idea why the prosecutor’s office hired these fools. Not only were they hardly capable of building a case, but they couldn’t defend it once she knocked on the weakest points. Their best weapon - Ruby Rose - _literally_ invented a new program to back up the charges, and the prosecutor _still_ bungled the rest of the arguments so badly that it was all-too-easy to pick everything apart.

For Ruby, it was a damn shame. All of that hard work wasted by a subpar attorney who barely passed the licensing exam. Weiss, on the other hand, was grateful Ruby only handled the technology. Otherwise, winning might actually be difficult. 

Honestly though, that was unlikely. If she and Ruby were forced to go head-to-head, she was confident she would come out on top more often than not. 

“See you back at the office,” she told the paralegals once they exited the Justice Center together. The young man and woman, whose names she never bothered learning, nodded and separated to take the train while she summoned her car to pick her up.

During the short wait, she took a deep breath and let it out in a long, satisfying sigh. Regardless of how many times she stood here, with the busy police station at her back and the rest of downtown towering above her, she never got tired of this feeling.

Winning, and winning handily. It was, arguably, the thing she was best at. Besides arguing - she was pretty damn good at that too.

When her car stopped in front of her - a sleek, silver vehicle that cost an egregious sum of credits - she raised her hand to the keypad and watched the door open for her. Once she slipped inside, the door shut and the car set off for her office on autopilot. 

Owning a personal automobile was uncommon these days, but she considered it a well-deserved luxury as much as a necessity. She worked too much not to use her commute to catch up on cases, and the last thing she wanted was for some snoop to snap pictures of the confidential information at her disposal. Besides, she could afford it - wasn’t that really all that mattered?

“Play classical,” she instructed the onboard computer while settling in for the short drive. 

Her other cases had generated dozens of emails during the time she’d dragged Vale P.D.’s shoddy policework through the mud, so her afternoon was already cut out for her. Before she dug into those, however, she needed to see her boss. Apparently, he wanted to speak to her - probably just another congratulations for another successful trial.

Some might look at her schedule and think she was too busy, but she liked her life this way. What was the point in slowing down when there was still so much to accomplish? Besides, she was at the top of her game and, based on how Vale’s ‘best’ prosecutors were faring against her, would be for quite some time.

By the time her car stopped in front of the office building housing the law firm she represented, she’d skimmed her emails and flagged several to re-read later. Having run out of time to do anything more, she slipped her phone into her bag and headed inside.

As the most prestigious law firm in Vale, Bryant & Waters didn’t shy away from flaunting its success. While the founders had stopped taking cases and now served as nothing more than figureheads, they’d hired plenty of competent replacements in their stead. These days, anyone with any money called Bryant & Waters at the first sign of trouble, giving them the right of first refusal on every case worth pursuing.

After crossing the opulent lobby and passing the receptionist without a second glance, Weiss entered the main office area and found the typical array of attorneys speaking to paralegals while interns rushed around. As usual, the atmosphere was just a step above organized chaos, though that was the fault of her coworkers, not her. Most of them were skilled schmoozers in and out of the courtroom, but their demanding office personas sent the paralegals into a tizzy. 

Surviving in this environment required a steel backbone and sharp tongue. Fortunately for Weiss, she had both. 

Stiffening her posture and tilting her chin higher, she avoided eye contact and made her way to her office.

“Weiss.” 

Spotting an older gentleman standing in the doorway of his enormous corner office, she smiled and altered her path over to him. Apparently when he said he wanted to talk to her, he meant before she even sat down. The discourteous gesture would usually bother her, but he was her boss - she would make an exception for him.

Damon Waters was a legend from his days of keeping Vale’s elite out of prison. Though known as a vicious tactician unafraid to embrace the morally gray areas of the job, he’d mellowed with age. Now, his graying hair and light green eyes suggested a man whose sharpness wasn’t quite what it used to be. 

If pressed back in front of a jury though, he could probably still wipe the floor with any of the attorneys he employed. With the exception of Weiss, of course, but she respected him enough to know that she shouldn’t underestimate him.

“Congratulations on the Donahue case,” he told her while sitting behind his desk, which served as a gathering place for administrative rather than case-related issues these days. “That’s great work.”

“Thank you.” 

Word traveled fast around here, so she wasn’t surprised that news of her latest victory beat her back to the office. If she had to guess, Damon received alerts for the outcomes of every case handled by his employees. That would also explain why he waited by the door whenever someone failed to earn a favorable verdict.

“Do you have another case to pick up?”

“I’m meeting a potential client in an hour,” she replied automatically. “If that doesn’t work, I have several others to contact.”

“Good,” he replied with a nod but nothing more. Given his position, he already knew how many cases she had yet made no comment on them. All he cared about was that she replaced each completed case with a new one while also finding time for the ‘personal favors’ he seemed to have more and more of recently.

“Is that what you wanted to see me about?” she asked when he didn’t bring up anything else. The last thing she wanted to do was rush him, but she also had a lot of work to do...as he was well aware.

“No, actually.” When he motioned to the seat across from him, she finally sat and waited for what he had to say. “I wanted to tell you before you heard from anyone else - we decided that Jeffrey will be Bryant & Water’s next partner.”

For a split second, the office stood still while those words sunk in. As soon as Weiss digested the comment, however, anger flared in her chest and a frown pulled at her lips.

“What were the determining factors?”

“You know a lot goes into these decisions.” Damon waved as if that answered everything, then glanced at his hands - giving away his intent to lie. “We felt he was the most deserving candidate at this time.”

Bullshit. 

That was what Weiss wanted to say, but she couldn’t afford to lose her composure right now, especially not with Damon. Instead, she straightened her posture and clenched her hands in her lap.

“What you’re saying is his parents paid for it,” she said, watching the answer appear on his face. 

“Well, no. He’s worked hard and put in a lot of hours -”

“With subpar results.” 

“Listen, Weiss,” Damon finally sighed. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. There could be another opening next year, and I know you’ll be heavily considered again.”

Even though she had a slew of responses she’d like to say to that, she clamped her jaw shut and nodded. 

“Thank you,” she replied before standing. “Is that all?” 

As soon as he nodded, she turned around and strode out of the room. Furious would be a great way to describe how she felt right now, but she refused to let her coworkers see just how angry she was at yet another slap in the face. 

Unfortunately, that simmering outrage only grew when she walked through the office and realized that everyone else already knew. While she was in court winning another case she shouldn’t have won - because she was _that_ good - the rest of them learned that some well-heeled, intern-chasing imbecile had been promoted before her.

Not a drop of sympathy existed for her though. Instead, they were smug - because the only thing they loved more than their self-centered quest for success was watching others fail to achieve the same.

“Bet you wish you had daddy’s money now, huh?” Korey whispered to her as she passed, but she didn’t justify him with a response. She didn’t even glance his way while walking into her office and shutting the door behind her. 

So much for this day going according to plan. 

When she’d learned that the senior partners were going to name a new partner, she figured it was such an obvious decision that she hadn’t spared it much thought. It _should_ have been an obvious decision. She worked harder, won more cases, and earned more positive publicity than anyone else in the office, yet they still passed over her in favor of a more well-connected and well-off colleague. 

Today proved that promotions weren’t earned - they were _bought_. She understood the system, and she understood it wasn’t designed to be fair. Regardless, she hated being on the losing side of anything. More than that, she hated that she’d poured her heart and soul into this job only for her father to be right - without his prestige, power, and money, she would amount to nothing. 

She refused to accept that. Not yet, anyway. So she would work even harder, take on more difficult cases, and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was better than all of her more-privileged coworkers combined.

She hadn’t lost. She just hadn’t won yet.

Still smoldering with discontent, she turned on her computer, sat back in her chair, and watched the office return to its normal hum of hectic energy. While watching attorneys and paralegals hurry between offices, a realization struck her - she didn’t like a single soul in the building. The other attorneys were closer to adversaries than friends, the paralegals were too scared of her to be more than an extra set of hands to carry her things, and the interns were just in the way.

Sometimes, she wondered what she was even doing here. This office included some of the worst people she’d ever met, and that was saying something considering her father’s less-than-favorable ‘associates’ and the clients she routinely represented. But the attorneys here, while somewhat skillful, brought new meaning to what it meant to be self-centered, egotistical sharks. Any of them would stab her in the back at the first opportunity, and she would gladly return the favor.

Or she could leave. Every other firm in the city had already made her an offer, so she could pick her next employer and name her price. The issue was that those firms didn’t have the same reputation. They weren’t the best or even close to being the best. While she had every confidence that she could drag any company to the top, she refused to back away from a challenge - she wanted to be the best of the best, even if that meant suffering yet another indignity.

The senior partners knew they had her. They knew that jumping to another firm would be more damaging to her than to them. Still, she couldn’t understand their reasoning. Jeff’s parents probably wrote a blank check, but was that money worth pissing off their best attorney? 

Maybe they worried that promoting her would make her finally decide that she’d had enough. No more pompous clients. No more smug coworkers. To hell with it all. 

Maybe they were right.

Now, however, wasn’t the time to dwell on circumstances beyond her control. Whereas her coworkers handled a third of her caseload, she had yet another client to add. Seeing as how this potential client was still in detention following his arrest, she would have to return to the police station to speak with him. 

But first, she used the limited time she had to fire off as many emails as possible. Follow-ups with investigators, requests for more information from clients, setting meetings with witnesses - anything and everything fell to her, and it was her responsibility to tie it all together in the end. Fortunately, making sense of nonsense was one of her strengths. She actually enjoyed the challenge of piecing disparate bits of information into a cohesive, persuasive argument.

Once she pushed forward as many cases as possible, she turned off the computer, grabbed her bag, and opened her office door. When one of the paralegals immediately jumped to their feet, she waved for them to sit back down and left the office by herself. As much fun as it was to have flustered paralegals following her around, meeting a prospective client was something she preferred to do alone.

The short ride to the Justice Center gave her just enough time to familiarize herself with this potential client’s case. Or, more accurately, she read the heavily-biased details provided by the arresting officer. Her job was to meet this man, ask some questions, and determine if he was a good fit.

She wished she didn’t have to walk through the police station to reach the detention center, but some idiot architect decided that connecting the two buildings - _and_ the courthouse - was a brilliant idea. From a safety perspective, she understood the decision - an escaped prisoner would have to pass through an entire building of patrol officers before reaching freedom. From a logistics and comfort standpoint, it resulted in too many interactions with the opposite side of the law.

Some of her coworkers viewed it as an opportunity. Any attorney who couldn’t win on argument alone loved the idea of flipping a cop or detective for inside information. That strategy always struck Weiss as underhanded though. Win on merit or find another job.

After passing through several security checkpoints, providing her Bryant & Waters identification and submitting to a full tech scan at each one, she made it to the detention facility. The new, state-of-the-art building had more stringent security measures than the police department and courthouse combined, and with good reason. Before being transferred to more-permanent rehabilitation centers, potentially violent or dangerous criminals were kept here.

But plenty of innocent people spent a day or two in the detention center while serving mandatory holds, so Weiss wasn’t at all intimidated by who ‘might’ lurk in a cell out of view. Besides, there were more than enough officers around. One of them sat at the front desk conspicuously placed behind a thick sheet of impenetrable glass.

When Weiss reached the front desk, the officer looked up and instantly recognized who she was - she could tell by the way his eyes briefly widened and his posture corrected. Apparently, her reputation of walking her clients out of this place preceded her.

“I’m here to see Alden Dunn,” she told him.

Nodding at the request, he pulled up Mr. Dunn’s information on the screen in front of him. After typing for a few seconds, he nodded again and motioned down the hall. 

“Room four.”

With that information, Weiss headed down the hall until she arrived at a small meeting room with the number four on the wall outside. The door had been remotely unlocked already, so she turned the handle and let herself into an empty room with no furnishings outside of a table and two chairs. Knowing it would take a little while for an officer to retrieve Mr. Dunn and escort him here, she sat in the seat with a view of the door and waited.

A few minutes later, the door opened and a different patrol officer led a short, portly man inside. From first impressions alone, his blue eyes implied youth contradicted by his salt-and-pepper hair, and his slumped posture suggested his past few days had been exceedingly hard.

“Mr. Dunn,” Weiss greeted him while standing and extending her hand. With his wrists still bound by holocuffs, he could only give a slightly awkward handshake in return.

“Weiss Schnee,” she added before returning to her seat. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” he replied before turning to the side when the officer motioned for him to set his hands on the table. Once he did as instructed, the officer latched the holocuffs to a steel rod connecting the table to the floor before exiting the room. 

“Although I wish it was under better circumstances...” Alden sighed while gently shifting his near-immobilized hands.

“That can’t be helped now,” Weiss replied with a wave. Pulling a small, spherical device from her bag, she set it between them and gestured to it. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to record this.”

“That’s fine.” 

Permission granted, she tapped the device and sat back to begin their conversation. As with most of these initial interviews, the information at her disposal was either written by the police or produced by journalists. While it was a start, it was by no means the whole story.

The man sitting across from her was Alden Dunn - owner of several upscale restaurants in the Gold District. He was known for some questionable business practices, especially when it came to poaching chefs and other personnel from rival restaurants. Unfortunately for him, cutthroat business practices looked angelic compared to what he’d been charged with.

“Before I decide whether or not to take on your case, I need to know what happened.” 

Once he hesitantly nodded, she picked the best course of action based on the clues he was projecting through his body language. Due to the severity of his supposed crime, she had to know more than he might be willing to tell her, necessitating a more blunt approach. If his responses - verbal or otherwise - suggested something she didn’t want to hear, she would move on to one of her other potential clients.

“You’ve been charged with attempted rape,” she stated matter-of-factly, noting his flinch at the word. Opening the arresting officer’s report, she prompted a photograph of a young woman with flowing brunette curls onto the holoscreen. “Your long-time server says that you tried to take advantage of her while you were both at the restaurant alone.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Why don’t you tell me what did?” she replied, motioning for him to elaborate. 

“Sasha and I have a...complicated relationship.” 

When that was all he offered, Weiss sat back and crossed her arms. 

“It’s complicated,” he repeated as if that somehow explained everything. “But I didn’t force myself on her.”

“Then why is she accusing you of a crime?”

“Because -” Again, he clammed up, and Weiss frowned. “I can’t say,” he eventually got out. 

“Why not?”

“Because if my wife finds out, she’ll leave me.”

“And she won’t leave you when you’re convicted of attempted rape?” Weiss asked, noticing him flinch again. 

“I’ll explain to her,” he reasoned. “She’ll believe me. She knows I’m not that type of person - I treat women with respect. That’s how I was raised.”

“What if she starts asking the same questions I am? What will you tell her then?”

When Alden had no response other than to stare, Weiss sighed and shook her head. She didn’t get the sense that he was guilty, but he wasn’t innocent either. Maybe he didn’t do what landed him in here, but he did something else - and she needed to know what that was.

“How long have you been here?” she asked with a motion towards the walls of the room. “A day?” When he nodded, she leaned forward. “Imagine spending the next ten years here.” 

His eyes widened at the idea, clearly having not thought that far ahead. But part of Weiss’ job was enlightenment. At least, that’s what she liked to believe.

“You’re looking at ten years,” she stated calmly. 

“But -”

“No,” she interrupted before he wasted her time pleading innocence. “Look at her,” she added with a gesture towards the alleged victim. “The prosecutor will put her on the stand to tell her side of the story. If you don’t tell me everything, how am I supposed to build a defense? How am I supposed to create an image for you that the jurors like more than _her?_ ” 

While he stared at the photograph, she searched his posture and expression for as many cues as she could find. In many instances, she could tell who was guilty or innocent by their demeanor. This one was less obvious. Obviously, he was afraid. He didn’t want to go to prison, but he had a secret that he didn’t want coming to light. Was it something even more heinous than the crime he was already accused of?

He didn’t come across as an angry man, but that didn’t mean he lacked a dark side. Meeting the accuser would probably be even more illuminating - was she a genuine victim or another pretty face used to getting what she wanted? 

“The choice is yours,” Weiss added while gathering her belongings and standing up. “I won’t represent you without all of the information - that’s final. So think about it, and email me if you’re tired of sitting in here.” 

Without his response, she walked out of the room and signaled to the officer that their conversation was finished. While he stepped into the room to collect Mr. Dunn, she headed back to work.

If he wanted a good attorney, he would tell her everything. If he did that, she would have a better understanding of the type of person she was working with. Either he was an idiot with a shameful secret or a criminal with skeletons in his closet.

If he turned out to be the former, she was positive that she could get the charges dropped or reduced to the bare minimum. But she wouldn’t put herself at a disadvantage just to keep his dirty secrets. She didn’t care what his wife or business partners or parents thought about him. 

She was in the business of winning, not saving marriages.


	3. Chapter 3

One of the nicest parts about Ruby’s job was that she could work wherever and whenever she wanted. It actually hadn’t been that way when she started, so she built out the security network and gave herself access to the police database away from the station. The Chief nearly had a stroke when she explained what she’d done but, after seeing how secure it was, let her keep it and even expand it for others.

If he  _ really _ didn’t want her to use it, she would have shut it down. But it made so much sense for them to be able to work from home - she had some of her best ideas at home! While doing laundry, cooking dinner...anytime, really, and running back to the station for every spark of inspiration would be pretty inconvenient.

Now, she worked from home often - a godsend in helping her keep up with her workload. The only drawback was that sometimes she got so caught up in something, or had to wait for something to finish, that she ended up being late to the station.

Leading her to this morning...as she rushed through the doors and found the day already in full swing. Patrol officers buzzed around their desks on the left side of the room while civilians waited in the smaller holding area on the right. The frenetic atmosphere teetered on the edge of disorder, but it had become comforting rather than frazzling over time.

“Head’s up!” one of the patrol officers called out while he and his partner marched a big, burly man with tree trunks for arms through the lobby. After a quick pause at the reception desk, they passed through the security doors and headed off to log their most-recent arrest into the detention facility. Most of the visitors stared after the man in wide-eyed shock, but the rest of the room carried on as if there was nothing to see.

The department was never boring, that was for sure. On any given day, there could be any given crisis thrust into their lives. Arsons, murders, drug wars, gang-related activity...the list went on and on. Then there were civilians walking or calling in to report various crimes or concerns of their own - thefts, extortion, missing relatives, or suspected criminal activity.

All of it came here, and it was the department’s responsibility to find answers, solve problems, or right wrongs. That sense of obligation kept every officer, detective, and lab worker coming in day after day, and it was that concept of duty that drew Ruby here to begin with.

She’s never been particularly great with people, which was probably why she didn’t have many close friends, but this job let her help others in a way she couldn’t replicate outside of these walls. Still, it didn’t escape her notice that she never helped them face-to-face; their interactions began and ended behind a screen just like most of the other relationships in her life. 

Yang usually told her that she was just ‘too smart’ for the ‘regular folks,’ but it felt like more than that. It felt like she was missing something. How else could she walk through the station’s buzzing entryway and still feel so restless?

There was always so much to do, but it felt different now. Was she just desensitized to the daily chaos? Seeing armed robbers and drug dealers used to fill her with a sense of excitement and trepidation, but that fear factor disappeared long ago. The same happened to the breathless awe of hearing the latest, greatest arrest story, which now sounded like nothing more than repeats with different names thrown into the mix. But she grew up hearing cop stories...maybe that was why everything fell within the same band of information.

Before passing through the security doors, she spotted Lionel - the arresting officer whose case she’d testified for yesterday. Rather than head directly to the lab and send him a message - what she would normally do on any other day - she made a detour over to his desk.

“Hey Lionel!” she greeted him. “How’d it go yesterday?” 

“Case got tossed.” 

Considering that was the opposite of what she’d expected to hear, she went flat-footed rather than race away with a ‘great job!’

“Are you serious?” she asked instead. “But... _ how? _ We had him with time, place, and motive!” 

“Yeah, but the log files weren’t checked, someone broke code pulling in a witness, and a bunch of other small shit.” 

Seeing as how  _ he _ was in charge of most of that, Ruby didn’t understand why he shook his head as if the result had been out of his control. 

“How the hell does Witch Schnee know our rules better than we do?” he griped, but Ruby was so shocked by the outcome that she didn’t know what to say.

How  _ did _ Weiss know their procedures better than they did? 

Logically, the laws were available to anyone who wanted to learn them. Apparently, Weiss had just learned them better than many of the officers. 

But that was only the beginning of her genius. Not only did she know the laws inside and out, but she knew the  _ officers _ better than they knew themselves. She probably walked into the courtroom already knowing that Lionel was lazy with log files, providing her another easy win in a long line of them.

“So...what now?” Ruby eventually asked, but Lionel shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

“Not much we can do. Just keep an eye on him and hope he doesn’t do anything again.”

That ‘solution’ was so unexpected that, for a second, Ruby just stared at him and tried to wrap her head around the situation. After putting so much effort into that case, finding out that her work had been in vain was disappointing. Especially when she felt like she nailed her part of the testimony.

This was a fact of life though. They won some, they lost some. When Weiss was involved, they lost a lot.

“Alright,” she finally said while backing towards the door leading further into the station. “Let me know if I can help?” 

Once he nodded, she scanned her badge and headed into the back of the station. That wasn’t the news she wanted to hear this morning, but she couldn’t let it get her down. There were more cases to work on, and more criminals to lock away. If she dwelled on the ones that got away, she wouldn’t sleep at night. 

Instead, she would focus on what she could control...and maybe put an added security tag on a certain Mr. Donahue. Nothing illegal. Just a little something that alerted her if he fell back into his sleazy ways.

Honestly, Ruby wondered what kind of person could work with assholes like that. But, obviously, Weiss considered browbeating prosecutors a fun game, so rubbing elbows with the most disreputable men and women in Vale must be a great time.

Most impressive was that Weiss won despite iron-tight tech evidence. How did she maneuver around the truth like that? Now her client was back on the street, and the department would have to build a brand new case if they wanted to bring him back in. 

Walking into the lab, Ruby sighed and put that thought behind her. Nothing she could do about it, but now she had time to perfect her newest invention. Next time she brought her shoe print scanner to court, not even Weiss could question its merits. In the meantime, she had a whole list of other cases to work on.

“One down, one million to go…” she muttered while pulling on her tech glove and starting her computers. 

On her list for today were a variety of searches, including the one Yang dropped off yesterday, as well as figuring out how to revive a holomask that had been crushed by an industrial garbage disposal, and finding a way to teach the patrol officers how to run license checks by themselves. That last part shouldn’t be too difficult, but she needed to write a few safeguards to keep them from doing something stupid like erasing the entire database. But first - yet another search function.

“What the hell…” 

Continuing the theme of never knowing what to expect, the first file she opened looked like it had been written by a five-year-old. Complete with the spelling and grammar mistakes a five-year-old would make. 

“Jesus, Trevor…” she muttered while struggling to decipher his notes. “Learn how to write…”

No wonder Weiss cut through their cases like a hot, extremely-beautiful knife through soft butter. The patrol officers were hired because they could chase a track star ten blocks and hardly break a sweat. At the same time, they could take heavy fire or face a gauntlet of blades without batting an eye. They were fearless and heroic, but that didn’t mean they were good at filling out paperwork or following the law to the letter. Actually, it seemed like the better they were at tackling gang members, the worse they were at creating case reports. 

Except Yang. Yang was good at both. A growing file of video clips on Ruby’s computer featured her making ridiculous saves or leveling bad guys with a wicked right hook, but her reports were always well-written and descriptive. She was smart, she was intuitive, and she could kick anyone’s ass -  _ that’s _ what made her Ruby’s favorite detective.

Hearing two knocks on the door, Ruby turned around and smiled when she saw that same detective standing outside. When Ruby waved her in, Yang opened the door and walked over with a smile.

“Good morning!” she said before pulling Ruby into a quick hug. “How’s it going?”

“Just getting started.” 

When Ruby waved at the screen, Yang glanced at it and made a face.

“Yuck. Whose writing is that?”

“ _Thank_ _you_. It’s Trevor’s.”

“Does he always write like his hand is broken?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” After giving the report another look, Ruby shook her head and returned her attention to Yang. “What’s up?”

“I was thinking about what you said yesterday. About being bored?”

“Yes…” 

Ruby didn’t know where this was going, but Yang seemed excited about it. And when Yang was excited about something, it wasn’t always a good thing.

“So I brought you something,” she explained before waving her metal palm across the scanner to drop a file onto Ruby’s computer. Grabbing it and pulling it onto the closest screen, Ruby gave Yang a curious look.

“What is it?”

“A challenge!” 

Yang raised her hands and beamed at the response, but hurried on when Ruby gave the document a dubious look. 

“Hear me out. You wanted something challenging, right? Since your mind’s moving faster than the rest of ours combined?”

“Not exactly what I said, but sure.”

“Ok, so I thought maybe you needed a  _ new  _ type of challenge. So...” Yang waved towards the screen again. “What better challenge than tackling something you’ve never seen before?”

Deciding to take a closer look at whatever had Yang grinning so much, Ruby opened the file and discovered that it was stuffed with various logs and other information. 

Whatever it was, it was complicated -  _ extremely  _ complicated. As soon as she recognized the template for a dream environment, she understood why.

“Blake helped you with this?” she asked even though she already knew the answer.

“I might have enlisted my gorgeous, brilliant girlfriend to help,” Yang admitted before motioning with both hands. “But it’s new, right? And she sounded pretty confident it would give you a challenge. Of course, that means I have no idea what we’re looking at.”

“It’s a dream environment,” Ruby explained with a wave at the screen. “This is what they look like when they’re compressed and sent to a Dreamscape.”

“See? You’re already lightyears ahead of me.”

“But it looks...weird…” 

The longer Ruby sorted through the files, the less sense they made. She considered herself pretty good with computers, but the way these files interacted didn’t follow any pattern or logic she knew about. 

“Am I supposed to use this in a Dreamscape?” she asked, but Yang raised her hands and shrugged. 

“Maybe you’re supposed to use a Dreamscape, maybe you’re supposed to use your computer.”

“You don’t know, do you.”

“No idea,” Yang replied with a laugh. “But I’m sure a genius like yourself can figure it out!”

“Maybe...except what Blake does is about a billion times more complicated than what I do.”

“That’s not true.”

“Uh, yeah. It is.” 

When Yang looked like she would argue, Ruby gave an emphatic nod. Computers began and ended with connections between electrical parts and symbols on a screen, but dream theory delved into psychology, physiology, and the neurons binding them together. She’d read a lot about it, especially when Yang and Blake started dating, and understood the basics but not the nuance. Her mind just didn’t work that way.

But she wasn’t one to back away from a challenge either.

“Blake probably hid something in the environment...” she mused before staring at the screen for several more seconds.

“In that case, good luck. You know normal rules don’t apply in there.”

“Maybe that’s the point.” 

The more Ruby thought about it, the more positive she was that Blake created a challenge within a dream. Considering how good Blake was at manipulating the laws of the universe within a Dreamscape, Ruby was probably in for a test unlike anything she could imagine.

The thought alone was enough to make her excited. That, and she loved seeing what Blake could create when freed of worldly constraints. 

“Thank you,” Ruby said while giving Yang a one-armed hug. “And thank Blake for me. I’m excited to see what this is.”

It wasn’t lost on her that they went out of their way to help, and she felt just as appreciative as she was excited about the distraction. Maybe it wasn’t a solution to her gnawing discontent, but it reminded her that she still had plenty to be grateful for.

“Let me know how it goes! Or if you need help or something.” After another glance at the screen, Yang chuckled and shook her head. “But I doubt I’ll be much help. Emotional support, maybe?”

“That’s always helpful,” Ruby pointed out, but Yang just shrugged and backed towards the door.

“I’ve got an interview then I’m meeting Blake for lunch - want anything?”

“Is it lunchtime already?” 

When Ruby looked at the clock, Yang laughed and tapped her metal knuckles against the doorframe.

“I guess it’s still breakfast for you.”

“I’ve been up for a while!” Ruby whined. “Just didn’t make it in until now...”

“Alright, alright. Message me if you want something?”

“Sure. Thank you!” 

Yang waved off the gratitude before heading back to her office, and Ruby turned back to her computer with a smile. Even though her actual work might have lost some of its novelty, seeing Yang every day never got old. They’d always been close, especially after their mom died, but working together helped them grow even closer. 

She hoped Mom was proud of them. They helped as many people as they could, but they were also...happy. At least, Yang was definitely happy. Ruby was happy most of the time, but she would describe herself as primarily content right now.

If Mom was around, she would have a solution for whatever Ruby was experiencing. She’d never give the answer flatout, of course - she’d use another brilliant Mom-ism that forced Ruby to figure it out on her own. Something like ‘the answer isn’t what you seek, but  _ why  _ you seek it,’ or ‘every great adventure requires a great moment of reflection.’ Or maybe something simpler but no less effective - something like ‘keep moving forward.’

Absent her mom’s guidance, Ruby planned to do just that. Keep moving forward. Keep working, keep striving to be the best person she could be, and never forget to be happy.

When another set of knocks pulled her out of her thoughts, she turned towards the door and smiled. The tall, handsome officer standing outside made all of the ladies (and some of the men) in the department swoon. Casey was just  _ that _ handsome. Especially in uniform, he looked like an actor playing the role of a cop rather than a real patrol officer with a badge, weapon, and ability to arrest someone. 

Ruby wasn’t attracted to him in that way, but she understood the appeal. Who didn’t want a tall, chiseled romantic partner capable of chasing down an armed robber or doing otherwise-impressive things?

Fortunately, he was friends with Yang, meaning Ruby got the ‘I’m friends with your sister therefore friends with you’ treatment. With Yang being two years older, that was how it usually worked. She started school first, made friends first, then Ruby joined and already had a social sphere in place. For someone who preferred working with computers rather than people, the arrangement worked perfectly.

“Hey Casey,” she greeted him when he walked over and gave her a high-five. “What’s up?”

“Hey, I was kind of hoping I could ask for a favor…” 

From his tone and expression, she didn’t know if she would like what he wanted to ask. 

“Ok...” she said anyway, knowing she couldn’t ignore the request entirely.

“A few weeks ago, I nabbed this guy for speeding...” 

That was all he had to say for Ruby to laugh.

“Is the Chief still giving you a hard time for that?”

“Yeah...doesn’t help that they’re friends, so he’s a little pissed. Said if I can’t get it to stick, I’m on dump duty for the next month.” 

The idea of serving a month on dump duty made Ruby wrinkle her nose. Dump duty was the worst. At least, from what everyone told her, it was the worst. 

“I’m supposed to present to Judge Haskell in a few hours,” Casey added before running a hand through his hair and sighing. “But the guy’s got Weiss Schnee representing him.” 

“Damn. Have fun on dump duty.” 

“I know...that’s why I wanted to ask you a huge favor. Do you think you can help? I know it’s probably a long shot, but if  _ anyone _ can think of a way to make this stick, it’s you.” 

When he put his hands together in a pleading gesture, Ruby considered his request. Speeding tickets were outside of her scope of work because...well, what could they possibly need her for when defending tickets? Besides, minor infractions like that weren’t seen as ‘important’ enough to make it into her typical workload. 

Casey was relatively new though, which was how he got into this predicament to begin with. He was also a good guy, and friends with Yang.  _ Plus _ ...

“Sure.” 

“Really??” 

“I’ll try to help.” While nodding to reassure him, Ruby felt her excitement grow. “I’ve actually always wanted to defend a ticket. You said a couple hours?” 

“Yeah, at three.” 

“I’ll be there.”

“You’re the best!” Before Ruby responded, Casey wrapped her in a hug and lifted her feet right off the floor - making her smile as he proved to be more like Yang than she initially thought. “I owe you  _ big  _ time,” he added after setting her back down. 

“Then you can do  _ me  _ a favor.” When he nodded and waited for his marching orders, Ruby pointed at her screen. “Teach Trevor how to write, please. I’m not writing a program just to help me read this.”

“I’ll talk to him right now,” Casey replied with a salute before hurrying out of the lab to do as requested. Ruby, meanwhile, pulled up the department procedures for issuing speeding tickets as well as the file for Casey’s case. 

Thankfully, she wasn’t starting from scratch. Over the years, she’d come up with a few theories regarding their speeding system, but she never had the chance to follow those theories very far. Until now.

To have a shot at winning this, she needed a lot of evidence. Collecting and organizing evidence happened to be one of her strong suits so wouldn’t take long. And, thankfully, a ticket hearing would only include the defendant and their representative, a judge, a prosecutor and the arresting officer. Juries were wildcards, but judges all thought the same way - and Judge Haskell was one of the most easygoing amongst them.

While flying through test arguments, searching for the best corroborating evidence for each, she realized that this was kind of dumb. She had other work to do, but this particular case excited her more than the rest. Besides, it wouldn’t take long, and she could work late tonight to catch up.

Two hours wasn’t very long to prepare, but she did her best with the time she had. With only a few minutes to spare, she gathered her supporting documents and practically skipped to the courthouse. The Chief would probably give her an earful for wasting her time on something so ‘easy,’ but  _ nothing  _ was easy with Weiss around.

That was what made this so exciting. Just how good was Ruby’s argument? How well could she defend it on such short notice? What were the weak points and how could they be exploited? Weiss would answer all of those questions and then some - Ruby was certain of it. Dare she say that she was looking forward to it?

As soon as Ruby walked into the small meeting room reserved for minor cases, she sought out Weiss, who sat beside her client at one of the desks. The moment their gazes met, Weiss’ brow rose - she was  _ surprised _ \- but that emotion quickly fell behind a mask. Instead, she watched with casual indifference as Ruby took the empty seat beside Casey.

“Thank you so much,” he whispered while she settled in by his side. 

“No problem,” she whispered back before glancing Weiss’ way. The man sitting beside her wore an expensive black suit with a platinum watch sparkling on his wrist, but the threads of shimmering material visible inside his jacket caught Ruby’s attention most.

Tech threads - the current hit with anyone who had enough money to spend tens of thousands of credits on a piece of clothing. Personally, she preferred not to advertise access to her personal files like that, but the possibilities of such mobile memory banks still intrigued her. Just how much functionality could be woven into a jacket without losing the aesthetic appeal?

When Weiss unexpectedly turned and caught Ruby’s gaze, Ruby blinked and quickly looked away. She hadn’t been staring - not at Weiss, at least - but it probably looked like she was. Determined not to get caught again, she fixed her gaze up front while Judge Haskell settled into his chair and motioned for the court recording to begin.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted them with an easy smile. “This is Case 32760 - a traffic movement violation against Mr. Willard Paul.” Once the record was set, he turned towards the defendant and Weiss. “I understand you’re contesting this charge?”

“Yes, Your Honor. On the grounds of faulty equipment and unlawful targeting of my client.”

Ruby shifted in her seat but tried not to smile at the response. From the ultra-quick research she did, almost every defense attorney used the same argument these days. That meant she picked the perfect counterargument, but why would Weiss use such a standard defense? Did she have another trick up her sleeve?

“Understood,” Judge Haskell replied before turning towards the prosecution’s table. Sensing that her moment was nearly upon her, Ruby straightened her posture and readied herself for the impending battle. “The prosecution has a response?” he asked, and both the prosecutor and Casey turned Ruby’s way.

“Yes, Your Honor. We’ve asked the Vale P.D.’s Head of Technology, Ruby Rose, to explain her findings.”

“The floor’s all yours.” 

When Judge Haskell waved to the screen used for displaying exhibits, Ruby hopped out of her seat and transferred her files to the computer. Once they loaded, she turned around and found the entire room watching her, but no one more closely than Weiss. 

Those icy blue eyes bored straight through her, searching for weaknesses before she even said a word. Everything she was about to say would be analyzed, absorbed, and quite possibly torn apart - and she couldn’t wait.

Unable to contain her excitement, she grinned and launched into her argument.


End file.
